fériasvsforasTell them apart

Which to use

“férias” and “foras” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,572
“férias” frequency rank
#35,602
“foras” frequency rank
37174
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature férias foras
Definition período de folga a que têm direito trabalhadores e estudantes forma plural de fora

Where the eye mixes férias and foras

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. férias runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against foras's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
férias
5 ch
foras

Look-alike desk: férias vs foras

A purely visual mix-up. férias (/ˈfɛ.ɾjaʃ/) and foras (/ˈfɔ.ɾas/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37174, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

férias is recorded at frequency rank #1,572, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɛ.ɾjaʃ/. foras is at rank #35,602, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɔ.ɾas/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 37174, this pair ranks #29,499 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of férias vs foras

Shared letters: afrs. Private to "férias": ié. Private to "foras": o.

"férias" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "foras" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foras ← fforas · foars · forass · forras · forsa · froas · ofras

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "férias" for "foras" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfɛ.ɾjaʃ/ versus /ˈfɔ.ɾas/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "férias" vs "foras" - which ranks higher?
"férias" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,572 in our Portuguese list, against #35,602 for "foras". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "férias" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "foras" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #29,499 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "férias" and "foras" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fodão vs foras". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #29,499 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list